HTML to PDF converter for Java and .NET

PD4ML Pro 3.8.0fx2 Release Notes

New in PD4ML Pro 3.8.0fx2

• RTF output improvements:
          - text & paragraph background color support
          - page insets control
          - paragraph margins control
          - header/footer for title page
          - page breaks optimization
          - white space/ blank lines optimization
• Fixed bugs:
          - error in TTF font substitution rules
          - BMP parsing issue
          - wrongly calculated text ascent cuts upper text elements by page break
  
   

New in PD4ML Pro 3.8.0

• conversion progress monitoring API
• improved HTML error tolerance (now it can correctly process <<tag>, <tag attr="val""> etc)
• watermark images are loaded via common resource cache now.
• RTF output improvements:
          - table/table cell background color support
          - table height support
          - TABLE {page-break-inside:avoid} style support
          - RTL text support
   

New in PD4ML Pro 3.8.0b1

• display: inline-block CSS style support
• refactored table break logic; correct table background rendering.
• memory usage optimization by PDF attachment embedding
• Fixed bugs:
          - explicit page breaks take no effect by RTF generation
          - slash-separated numbers in RTL text erroneously change direction of the number groups
          - undesired 1px footer right margin
          - no way to combine underline and line-through CSS style. overline is not supported.
          - <font> tag does not allow to define text background
          - underline is broken by text-align: justify
          - undesired 1px footer right margin
          - minor issues
   

New in PD4ML Pro 3.7.1b9

• PDF merge feature / API
• Fixed bugs:
          - RTL text: Ideographic Space (0x3000) is ignored under some conditions
          - avoid line breaks before closing brackets
          - CJK fonts can be not visible if HTML doc has no paragraphs or other markup
          - minor issues
   

New in PD4ML Pro 3.7.1b4

• HTML-to-Image conversion API
• Fixed bugs:
          - RTL text: incorrect last line alignment by align="justify" 
          - dynamic page format change (or rotation) makes headers/footers width does not match actual page width
          - <pd4ml:page.break next="odd"> acts as <pd4ml:page.break next="even">
          - Whitespace supression is not optimal if whitespaces are deleimited by a style changer tag
          - minor issues

New in PD4ML Pro 3.7.1b1

• BMP images support
• HTTP proxy definition for a single PD4ML instance (does not impact global JVM HTTP proxy settings)
• text-indent CSS property implementation
• RTL mode: table column order, lists, text indents etc
• PNG-24 "as is" embedding
• Fixed bugs:
          - dynamic page format change (for example, with <pd4ml:page.break pageFormat="rotate">) makes headers/footers not matching actual page width
          - background positions defined in percent values do not work
          - invalid appearance of font.dir.location in pd4fonts.properties
          - setPermissions() defines "PDF owner password"; must be "PDF user password"
          - Not optimal TTF fonts memory usage
          - footnote definition interferes with absolute positioned document layouts
          - smartTableSplit mode does not work in PD4ML Std
       

New in PD4ML Pro 3.7.0fx2

• initial page number command-line parameter for Pd4Cmd
• headers/footers support by RTF output
• <canvas> delegation API
• Fixed bugs:
          - occasional mbtPdfAsm.exe (a third-party tool) crashes by operations with generated PDFs
       

New in PD4ML Pro 3.7.0fx1

• Fixed bugs:
          - Complex document layouts with multiple levels of nested tables may cause invalid RTF output
          - TABLE{ page-break-inside: avoid } CSS style may result blank footers
          - PD4ML_MEDIA_TYPE_PRINT property does not respect media types defined in external stylesheets
          - Invalid interpretation of semicolons in URL
          - Pd4Cmd command-line utility has no switch to produce RTF
          - Minor issues.      

New in PD4ML Pro 3.7.0

• render(StringReader[], ...) API call
• <input> element horizontal value alignment
• Fixed bugs:
          - "page-break-before: always" applied to <h1>-<h6> confuses table of contents references
          - horizontal paddings, applied to <tr> cause invalid table background bounds
          - trailing blank page suppression logic does not change total page number value
          - tables in footer may conflict with "page-break-inside: avoid" CSS style.      

New in PD4ML Pro 3.6.1b2

• RTF file format output support
• nth-child(even|odd) CSS selector support
• JAR obfuscation changed to provide compatibility with Scala programming language
• Dummy implementations of some HTML5 elements
• enableTableBreaks() API call is renamed to enableSmartTableBreaks(). Table page break/replication of table headers code refactored.
• API methods to reuse PD4ML cache
• CSS Parser patched to potentially support CSS3 features.
• Fixed bugs:
          - under particular conditions table cell background may shadow top cell border.      

New in PD4ML Pro 3.6.1b1

• Generic support of embeddable TIFF files (CCITTFax group 4)
• A configuration switch to support "print" CSS media type (in addition to or instead of default "screen" type).
• Optional image caching in local $TEMP directory.
• Fixed bugs:
          - a possibility of commas and other punctuation to be "line-wrapped" separately from its leading word.
          - under particular conditions table cell background may shadow top cell border.      

New in PD4ML Pro 3.6.0fx1

• Fixed bugs:
          - &#151; entity wrongly interpreted when TTF embedding is switched off
          - not closed <head> results a blank document
          - background-image: none/inherit CSS property causes an undesired resource request

New in PD4ML Pro 3.6.0fx1b6

• New API method pd4ml.useHttpRequest(HttpServletRequest, HttpServletResponse) allows PD4ML to load resources via HTTP RequestDispatcher
• New API method pd4ml.clearCache() removes all internally cached resources
• &shy; entity support
• Fixed bugs:
          - By multi-document conversion some documents may loose HTML background 
          - "overflow: hidden"  does not work for <textarea>
          - Minor refinements  

New in PD4ML Pro 3.6.0fx1b1

• New configuration switch m.put(PD4Constants.PD4ML_ABSOLUTE_ADDRESS_SPACE, "document") to switch PD4ML into backward compatibility mode of absolute positioning
• Fixed bugs:
          - <b> tag does not work, however "text-weight: bold" does  (introduced in v360)
          - Default text align in dir="rtl" mode is "left", instead of "right"
          - Errors by parsing of particular PNG sub-types.
          - Text style of <legend> is not overriddable with CSS.  

New in PD4ML Pro 3.6.0.0

• Pd4Cmd command-line HTML-to-PDF converter
• Fixed bugs:
          - Invalid text background inheritance
          - MS-Office-specific 'windowtext' and 'window' color names ignored
          - No table cell background if the cell contains <br> tag only.
          - Minor text flow issues

New in PD4ML Pro 3.6.0b3

• Tooltips from TITLE attributes
• New PD4Util class with the first utility methods: pd4fonts.properties generation API
• Fixed bugs:
          - Minor dynamic font substitution logic issues
          - Some PNG images may cause resulting document format corruption
          - Bottom and top table breaks borders render refinement

New in PD4ML Pro 3.6.0b2

Page-oriented address space for absolutely positioned elements.
• Basic HTTP authentication support
• A possibility to define bottom and top borders for table breaksJSP taglib mapping of PD4ML.setDynamicParams()
• Blank page suppress logic
• MIME decoder for Lotus Notes attachments
• Fixed bugs:
          - relative image references from stylesheet use document location instead of the stylesheet location as docbase
          - relative hyperlinks point to local filesystem instead of locations related to document's URL
          - possible 1-2px gap between header/footer and page edge.

• New API method fitPageVertically() forces PD4ML to put entire HTML content to a single PDF page
  
• New API method protectPhysicalUnitDimensions() makes PD4ML to output PDF objects respecting dimensions/font sizes given in "in", "pt", "cm" etc. (WARNING: the mode can cause broken layout; see the documentation)
  
• <pd4ml:page.break> can be conditional with the new attribute "ifSpaceBelowLessThan"
  
• Fixed bugs:
          - JDK1.3: corrupted PDF output if image width or height is explicitly set to "0"
  

New in PD4ML Pro 3.0.3b5

• Support for dotted and dashed border styles.
  
• The default TOC style changed.
  
• Fixed bugs:
          - minor issues
  

New in PD4ML Pro 3.0.3b2

• New <pd4ml:toc> tag allows to generate table of contents (TOC) from HTML headings structure (<H1>-<H6>). The tag can be used in HTML and JSP.
  
• Support for "page-break-inside: avoid" CSS directive for tables and table rows.
  

New in PD4ML Pro 3.0.2

• New API methods:
          - adjustHtmlWidth()
          - setCookie(name,value)
          - setDefaultTTFs(serif,sansserif,monospace)
  
• Fixed bugs:
          - ClassCastException by SSL connections
          - minor issues
  

New in PD4ML Pro 3.0.1

• Fixed bugs:
          - NullPointerException after render(InputStreamReader,OutputStream) API call
          - minor issues in PNG embedding
  

New in PD4ML Pro 3.0.0

• Support for JDK 1.3
• Fixed bugs:
          - PNG image embedding
          - Skip of table cell content if it is shorter as 2 characters (bug of PD4ML Pro 3.0.0b2)
  

New in PD4ML Pro 3.0.0b2

• Basic right-to-left scripts support added to the new renderer.
• A bug with an ignoring of <pd4ml:page.break> under special conditions is fixed.
• $[var] placeholder format is supported along with ${var}. It is done in order to avoid notation conflicts with the newest servlet APIs.
• align="justify" accuracy refined.

New in PD4ML Pro 3.0.0b1

• It is a new generation of PD4ML tools based on a custom HTML rendering engine, which is tuned for an efficient and accurate HTML-to-PDF transformation. See the detailed description for more info.

New in PD4ML 1.2.8 / Pro 2.1.4

• New tag <pd4ml:savefile> allows to save generated PDFs on the server side. The tag can optionally forward current HTTP request to another JSP for PDF postprocessing or to the saved PDF file itself for direct downloads.
• New tag <pd4ml:fix_base_path> allows on-a-fly to replace unsupported absolute resource paths (ie, "/folder/image.gif") with compatible ones ("../../folder/image.gif" or "http://myserver/folder/image.gif"). The feature solves some of compatibility issues with third-party graphics or chart JSP tag libraries, that outputs non-customizable image paths.
• New attribute enable of <pd4ml:transform> enables or disables PDF transformation. The attribute helps to build "dual-purpose" JSPs: to be viewed as HTML or as PDF.

New in PD4ML 1.2.6 / Pro 2.1.2

• Fixed bugs:
          - Occasional HTML header/footer output skip. (re)
          - Monochrome JPEG embedding problem.
          - Minor bugfixing and code optimization.
  
   
  
• Known issues:
          - second parameter of useTTF(String pathToFontDirs, boolean embed) has no effect
  

New in PD4ML 1.2.5 / Pro 2.1.0

• Fixed bugs:
          - Occasional ignoring of useAFM attribute value.
  
   
  
• Known issues:
          - second parameter of useTTF(String pathToFontDirs, boolean embed) has no effect
  

New in PD4ML Pro 2.1.0b3

• New utility tag <pd4ml:clean_xhtml> replaces all occurrences of '/>' with '>' in order to make JSP output PD4ML-friendly.
• Fixed bugs:
          - JDK's fontmanager.dll bug workaround.
          - Incorrect cache control for dynamic images.
          - Occasional PDF file format corruption if default file.encoding=UTF-8.
  
   
  
• Known issues:
          - second parameter of useTTF(String pathToFontDirs, boolean embed) has no effect
  

New in PD4ML Pro 2.1.0b

• Watermark images support.
• Fixed bugs:
          - Occasional header/footer output skip.
          - Undesired character encoding conversions in PD4ML taglib.
          - Default 3D table borders optically refined.
  
   
  
• Known issues:
          - second parameter of useTTF(String pathToFontDirs, boolean embed) has no effect
  

New in PD4ML Pro 2.0.0

• Page headers and footers can be defined in HTML format (including image references).
• TTF font directories can be addressed by URLs
• A special URL protocol "java:" allows to load TTF fonts from classpath locations (including JARs).
• Scaling of table background images supported.
• Fixed bugs:
          - workaround for Adobe Acrobat Reader 7 image transparency interpretation error.
  
   
  
• Known issues:
          - second parameter of useTTF(String pathToFontDirs, boolean embed) has no effect
  

New in PD4ML Pro 2.0.0b

• TTF Font embedding support
• Support for national character sets (with some exceptions)

New in PD4ML 1.2.5b1

• Starting with the version PD4ML Standard, Web and Professional source code branches have been merged. See release notes for PD4ML Pro 2.1.0b3.

New in PD4ML 1.2.4

• Fixed bugs:
          - Default 3D table borders optically refined.
          - workaround for Adobe Acrobat Reader 7 image transparency interpretation error.
  

New in PD4ML 1.2.2

• Optimizes outlines tree structure.
• Fixed bugs:
          - Header/footer font definition problem.
          - Minor bugfixing and code optimization.
  

New in PD4ML 1.2.0

• Fixed bugs:
          - HTTPS delivery problems to some versions of MS Internet Explorer.
  

New in PD4ML 1.2.0b2

• Font face and style control for headers and footers.
• Fixed bugs:
          - Invalid text alignment in graphical representations of form elements.
          - Invalid dash character glyph width in font metrics.
          - ServletResponse.resetBuffer() is replaced with ServletResponse.reset() in the taglib for compatibility with older servlet engines.
  

New in PD4ML 1.2.0b

• PDF document navigation. PDF outlines (bookmarks) generation mechanism added. Now it is possible to convert to outlines a list of named anchors (<a name="anchor_id">label</a>) or a headings structure (<h1>...<h6>).
• Transforming of HTML hyperlinks to PDF hyperlinks (if not explicitely disabled). Hyperlink jumps within the same document are supported as well.
• Multiline header/footer support.
• Opaque PNG images are embedded to resulting PDFs "as is".
• Debug switch method added to localize image path / document base problems.
• Fixed bugs:
          - Image path problems in PD4ML taglib.
  

New in PD4ML 1.1.0

• JPEG images are embedded to resulting PDFs "as is". In most of cases it reduces the documents size.
• Fixed bugs:
          - Incorrect default page fonts if Acrobat Reader's font metrics are used.
          - Invalid representation of <LI type=DISC> and <LI type=CIRCLE> in PDF

New in PD4ML 1.1.0b3

• Significant performance improvement for multipage PDF document generation.
• Jrun4 / ColdFusion 6.1 compatibility.
• Fixed bugs:
          - Occasional ignoring of header/footer settings.
          - Loosing of page content under particular conditions.
  

New in PD4ML 1.1.0b

• Encryption and permission control added.
• Added rendering possibility using Acrobat Reader's font metrics instead of the ones offered by Java. That makes PDF rendering more accurate if HTML layout consists of long text strings.
• Struts compatibility workaround implemented.
• New JSP custom tag <pd4ml:permissions> added in order to reflect PD4ML API changes.
• "Umlauts + Russian locale" issue solved.

New in PD4ML 1.0.5

• ${total} placeholder is replaced correctly with total number of pages in page header or footer.
• Header and footer dialog option panels are unlocked in PD4ML Browser / Converter.
• Some minor rendering refinements

New in PD4ML 1.0.5b

• Customizable PDF page header and footer support included.
• PD4ML API allows now to control PDF document properties: document title (allows to override default value taken from HTML document title), document author.
• interpolate images option is available.
• New JSP custom tags <pd4ml:header> and <pd4ml:footer> added.
• JSP custom tag <pd4ml:transform> reflects to the recent PD4ML API changes.
• Table cell background image bug fixed.

New in PD4ML 1.0.4

PD4ML 1.0.4 is a maintenance release to fix bugs found in release 1.0.2 and 1.0.3

• PD4ML-specific <pd4ml:page.break> tag added (supported in JSP as well as in HTML context)
• JSP Custom tag libraries support added
• Fixes problem with resource sharing in multithread environment
• Other minor bugfixes

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